ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ต.ค. 2024
- It's finally time to cover the most well-known entry in Akitoshi Kawazu's wild ride that is the SaGa franchise. In this review, we're looking at SaGa Frontier's modern remaster of the PS1 classic. Does it hold up after playing all the Romancing SaGa entries, and a few of the more recent outings? Let's find out.
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I'm so glad Kawazu is still with Square and heavily involved with these re-releases. None of their other franchises are getting this level of love and attention.
it's just amsueing thinking how the niche series no one really cares about in the west gets a better treatment then the more popular games.
@@megamike15 Kawazu has been highly respected at the company for decades now. That's how he got these games made in the first place even with much lower budgets. That he is able to get these games remastered is not really surprising knowing that.
I swear you can recognize a SaGa battle theme by just first 3 seconds
Same composer from very early on all the way to Scarlet Grace and the gacha games. Kenji Ito is massively underrated in the west.
Forgive me for getting into a game so late...
Played this game as a child but never got far. Always remained a mystery to me. I even received a PSOne disc and old prima guide. Playing the remaster with the guide was an amazing experience 20 years in the making for me.
I always though the enemies had a 'child's toy box' appeal to it.
One of the best combat systems I've played on an RPG.
A fair review. Maybe its just my nostalgia, but I really feel like this game is more than the sum of its parts
It's disappointing that Frontier 1 is the most notoriously unfinished game, because it had a lot of amazing mechanics that keep me coming back to it every few years.
First time I played SaGa Frontier, I had rented it when it was still pretty new...and I hated it. Not having an instruction manual (because it was a rental) didn't help with all the intricacies of the game's systems. Also didn't help that I picked Lute as my first character LOL. He easily had the worst scenario in my opinion...although it does feature some interesting lore. Something possessed me to rent it again, and this time I played with Red, and had a total BLAST. I knew then that I had to own the game...so I bought it and never regretted it.
On the subject of lore, a lot of the issues some might have with the game is that it doesn't do a good job of connecting elements into anything resembling a cohesive story, as pretty much every other SaGa title manages to do. For example, Emilia's story means a lot more when you realize that Ren had been investigating Trinity (basically Shinra) and their research on an ancient civilization's relic/OOPART infinite power generator, known as Cube, when he got possessed by a mask containing the spirit of one of said ancients. He then basically turns into Sephiroth, trying to worm his way into Trinity's good graces/kill them off in order to retrieve the Cube, which he believes is his sole birthright. All of this is from the Ultimania, and iirc is found nowhere (or in very small part) in-game... At least, that goes for the original release. Not sure if maybe the remaster fixed that in Fuse's scenario, since I wanted to finish all the other characters before starting his, and I haven't gotten there yet 😅. So, yeah, they REALLY dropped the ball on the storytelling here (in the original at least).
Other than a couple minor gripes, it really is a good game, and worth the time to play through. I think out of everyone, my favorite character is Asellus, especially since the remaster fixed her story. She reminds me of Terra from FF6 (a comparison that I think may have been intentional on Square's part to some degree) which makes her even cooler in my book. SaGa is always such a good time.
You really killed it with this review. Excellent work.
I can only hope that someday we'll get a Minstrel Song type remake for Frontier 1. It is by far my least favorite game in the franchise due to just how unfinished it all feels. I still enjoy it, but knowing that over half of the game was just never finished just stings
Yeah, there's a very strong basis for a much better game, and it's sad. You'd really hope that the remaster would make the same difference between original Romancing SaGa and Minstrel Song. Because the original RS you couldn't even complete the central fatestone quest, they weren't even properly implemented yet. And MS is honestly the most feature complete game in the series. At least, in my opinion.
I was actually talking to my brother about this. Supposedly the director is working on a Remake of a game, my guess is that it's just a Remake of Unlimited SaGa since that game was really criticized by fans. However, I really hope it's actually a Remake of SaGa Frontier with the that SD 3D characters like in Minstrel Song. That would be amazing!!
I was one of the beta testers for the fan Japanese to English translation of Romancing Saga 3, which was excellent, and got Saga Frontier cheap for the PS1 a while later. I also had played Final Fantasy Legend 1 & 2, which had decent stories. Saga Frontier was an incredible disappointment that lacked story, direction, and when I played Aselus's story, stepping even once into the wrong screen could get an instant battle with one of the end of game bosses: Lion Princess at the start of the game mopped the floor with Aselus's purple blooded guts and caused instant anger-inducing game overs that made me roar like a lion! 😸 At least Aselus's boss battles had a boss theme other than the boring, normal battle theme when I played Riki's story. Other than that, the absolute worst part was the lack of any direction explaining what you needed to do to advance the otherwise non-existant story. At least the casino level could have been playable and the highlight // best part of the game like the similarly awful Final Fantasy 13-2. 😂
Asellus is the most op character if you go mystic with her. She can get the stat boosts from imprisoning monsters in her weapons on top of normal human stat growth.
Emelia can learn DSC faster than Liza, like before leaving Despair if you know what you're doing. Better at martial arts than guns, and better at martial arts than any other character.
Monsters can shred if you get the right one with good moves. Riki can damn near solo his content by the time you're leaving Tanzer since monster stats are tied to forms and forms come from moves. Pick your battles wisely and you can rock an end game monster at battle rank 1.
Remake is pretty good, great even, cause I don't have to Takonomics on every character, but you learn a lot more about the game when playing it on the PS1 since monster drops were practically non-existent and you only got marginal stat boosts on characters between scenarios. And the Fuse scenario(s) was finally added to the game!
Monsters are a support based race and once you learn that, litterally nothing can stop you
Their defense are higher than any other race, easily outclassing them in terms of resistance
They have the best healing spells including the ability to learn Liferain and use magic heal which is the best healing spell in the game,etc
They are for defensive based playstyles but they rock a lot, the move variety also makes me prefer them rather than any other class in the game
Humans being my second choice and robots even tho offensive powerhouses, are my least favorites of those 3 as they have to use repairkits to heal, can either go about swords or guns and nothing else with the same skills over and over again
Mystics are just garbage with the exception of timelord
And ohh, thanks for talking about this game, easily my favorite game of all times
I just love the anthology aspect of it and how complex the battle system is due to how much play styles the race system supports, from grind heavy to non grinders
From speedruners to optimizers
Its a fantastic game
Ps: the flee function without any consequence is a new function in the remaster
Im not a fan too
Mesarthim can use Magical Heal and Liferain.
Nusakan can also be a good support character.
Monsters take forever because of RNG learning.
@@StormWHM They arent as good for support as Monsters because their defensive stats arent as good, monsters are tanky as hell and on top of that, mystics do require grinding, while if you have good rng you can rush the living hell out of the game with a monster (zeroworm being the fastest way to beat the game at BR 3)
Both Mesarthim and Nusakan aren't restricted by Mystic Armor. They have access to shields too. Anyone can rush the game when you get Null Swords and Lethal Guns. The Junk Shop would be the easiest way to equip everyone. It's much easier to equip your team with Lethal Guns and unlock Cross Shot and basically steamroll the entire game pretty effortlessly. Also, monsters defense stats are based on pre-equipped items that you cant see, so you can achieve the same defense with other characters.
@@StormWHM mystics arent good for rushing the game as they require a lot of grinding to have enough HP and WP is usually a problem
Let me explain:
On a mystic youll need their techniques, which require WP to use (different from their magic)
This means youll need to grind WP which its very easy to do when playing as a human, difference being: using their techniques dont raise WP nor youll get WP by using bazookas and LMGs
This means your only way for getting WP is by equiping a basic weapon like a sword or pistol and spamming their basic attack
This is not convenient nor quick to do and youll be in disadvantage if your mystic dont start out with high WP
Meanwhile, strong monster forms come with 100+ WP and their techniques use both WP and JP at will, without sacrificing much to get that
They have twice the number of skills a mystic has, they dont depend on grinding and they have extremely high defense.
So a mystic will never be meta, specially when the only technique you may want from them is tiger rampage (which works better for mechas)
Are you talking about rushing or mystics in general? Don't jump around please.
When talking about rushing you should just use a robot. Go to junk shop and do the trick. Then deck them out with your powered suits for way higher defense then a monster and resistance to all status ailments. Meanwhile you can equip all your other characters and pretty easily beat the game, without much effort. There's never any need to use a monster when you have access to robots and easy equipment. Monsters take forever in comparison with RNG trying to get rare abilities.
When talking about mystics, they don't have to grind as much as humans and don't have to deal with RNG from monsters. They are primarily spellcasters, that have access to monster abilities. What abilities you probably want on Mesarthim and Nusakan would be Magical Heal and Da-Dum. You could give them magic like Shield, Foul or Mirror Shade for support. Then equip them with Excel Shield, Powered Suit, Harmonium Earring and Purple Eye for both resistances and defenses.
For offense you have access to magic, just leave the weapon abilities for humans.
When maximizing characters, robots are the fastest, mystics are second, humans are third and monsters are last. The dumb RNG makes sure of that. By the time you maximize one monsters base HP, you could have mastered abilities from multiple humans, which then makes them redundant in comparison. You can get a strong monster form when you aren't willing to raise the health, as the base health is 4x how many abilities you have absorbed. But robot would still beat them on game rushing.
Twice the number of skills? Both Mesarthim and Nusakan have seven abilities. They also have abilities with mystic equipment. Mesarthim has Life Rain and Mealstrom with her Mellow Ring and Nusakan has Recover with Mystical Shawl, so they aren't lacking with abilities to use in combat. Some abilities you get with monsters are used to keep the monster form and you probably wont even use some of them, so not sure where you're going with that.
2:58 OMG I did not expect that reference!
I really loved Saga Frontier, I made sure to read that entire translated interview after I beat the game, lots of cool ideas and cute wee drawings, you can see the seems and it does feel incomplete as you say but it has charm for days, and I really enjoyed it on the whole, I liked Blue's ending as well reminded me of Sword of Doom.
great review, and ur voice is awesome
Thank you. I know nothing about this series but I think I would like to give it a go. I played Shining the Holy Ark recently and the enemies in that game reminded me of some in this one. Have you ever played that game?
I have not. I did play Shining in the Darkness, the first Shining game. Also a dungeon crawler. And obviously Shining Force 1 and 2, as well as EXA. Maybe one day I'll play Holy Ark.
I could play an entire game centered around just the Mystic mechanic. I come back to Saga Frontier every couple years because the mechanics are just fun once you finally figure them out.
Frontier is still my favorite in the series because of mystics. Minstrel Song is fun, but the hidden systems are overwhelming, and I really miss having other playable races.
SF2 was too linear for my tastes
I remember being really disappointed with Frontier when it released, though that could have been based on hype alone. But after watching this I think it might be time to put the remake on the wishlist
Most underrated RPG handsdown.
Hi above up i was thinking why have you not post any videos on etrian seres when are you going to post it?
Ha! So true that the bio lab is the best levlling place - great music there
Honestly playing SaGa Frontier as the latest entry in the series was a real treat, as the game basically a final exam of mechanics from the Gameboy and Romancing trilogies. I got into it surprisingly easy without the need for a guide, something I can't say for most of the other games.
Fantastic character posters/covers jokes
So saga frontier is a game that collaborates the saga romance series?
Hmmm, Underwater? My guess is Endless Ocean
Fuse really fucked over Emilia, I swear.
I enjoy both scifi and fantasy, but if I had to pick, then fantasy probably edges out scifi marginally.
A few months after the first lockdown happened, a buddy of mine gifted me Sandman on audible, and since then I've completed nearly 100 books on that service, most of which are fantasy.
I highly recommend anything from Brandon Sanderson and Will Wight, and for anyone interested in litRPGs (books where the writers quantify character progression using systems like you would expect to see in console or computer RPGs) I recommend the "Defiance of the Fall" and "Divine Apostasy" series of books.
Or if you really enjoy the Korean WebToon "Solo Leveling" and wish there were more stories like that, then "The Dungeon Slayer" series is pretty good, and very much in that vein.
I love the music, the combat and the world building in the Saga series but my god the structure and stories of the games are so bad
SaGa Frontier was a disappointment when it first released in 1998. I played Blue's campaign to completion back then and man, his ending was total garbage. THE END? Did I even beat the final boss? When I realized that playing all of the other characters would just have me doing the magic side quests again to level up I had no desire to keep playing. My brother getting softlocked at both Red and Emilia's final bosses because his party was too weak was another nail in the coffin for this game. I love the Romancing SaGa games but Frontier is just... not good in comparison. I'd rather play Minstrel Song again instead.
Lol you basically had my experience with the game when I played it originally too. I didn't understand Blue's Ending either. It felt like they just ran out of money and ended it on the fight. But I always loved the gameplay so later in life I bought it off a friend of mine and tried it again and later became aware or the lore, missing content and hidden mechanics and this has easily krept its way to being a favorite of mine. IE: in Blue's scenario he is canonically killed and Rouge wins the duel and he is sent to hell to buy the mages time to reseal the hell lord back into Hell. Knowing that the ending makes much more sense. In game there is one small throwaway line hinting to this near the end. Thanks to Treble0069's great let's play back in the day he explained a lot of lore and details in it.
this didnt appear in my subs
If anyone wants to play this game it and the sequel are available on the Japanese PS3 Store.
Frontier is my favorite I love it
i thought this was unlimited saga for a second that was the worst game i ever played when i was younger
noice
Didn't know they remade one of the most frustrating JRPGs this side of The 7th Saga.
I hope they did something about the unresolved plots & complicated battles.
>terry pratchett
oof, my condolences
I remember buying this game from gamestops used game bin. I could barely finish it it was just so boring.
ps1 is hard than any version remaster is to easy
@slusheewolf2.097they cant.
Nothing changes aside from story content. You cant play like the psx version